The Player:

Pure talent. Maybe that's what better defines Johnson. His "magic" revolutionized the game of basketball.
Behind-the-back passes, no-look passes,
alley-oops from halfcourt, pivot moves, a smile for the history, were just parts of the endless arsenal of the tallest point guard in league history.

Considered one of the best players ever, he was the model of the perfect basketball player: team play, talent, fun, and he seemed to do everything right, he could score, assist, rebound and be the man to go in clutch time, whatever his team needed to win.

The NBA didn't need any time to notice his greatness. In his rookie year the Lakers made the Finals and were 3-2 up but Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
was sidelined with a badly sprained ankle. At the age of 20 Magic Johnson took the Lakers to the victory in the
series-clinching sixth game with a legendary performance. He
played center in place of Abdul-Jabbar and with 42 points, 15 boards, 7 assists and 3 steals gave the Lakers the championship and became the first rookie ever to win the Finals MVP Award.

During his brilliant career he got every title and award available (except for the Rookie of The Year that went to Larry Bird), from the NCAA Championship to the NBA and the Olympic Gold, he was the leader of some of the best teams the basketball has seen including the Showtime Lakers and the one who was clearly the best ever: Magic was the point guard in the Jordan-Bird-Barkley-Ewing-etc 1992 original Dream Team.

The Magic is not over:

Before the 1991-92 season Magic stunned the basketball world with his retirement and the announcement that he had the HIV virus. He still played the All-Star Game that season leading the West to a 153-113 victory and earning his second MVP.

After that, Magic played for the 1992 U.S. Olympic Dream Team, and with 16 games left to play in the 1993-94 season, he made an interim replacement of Randy Pfund as the head coach of the Lakers.

He made a final comeback as a player in the 1995-96 season. He played the final 32 games, the Lakers entered the playoffs but were defeated by Houston in the first round and Magic retired definitely.

He has made campaigns to promote AIDS awareness and has run several businesses including theaters in minority neighborhoods in Los Angeles and other cities. He's also a part-owner of the Lakers.

When he retired in 1996
he was the NBA's all-time leader in assists in the regular season and in the playoffs. He is currently the Lakers all-time leader in assists and steals in both the season and the playoffs.

Magic Johnson Highlights

* Mr. Triple Double * The stat triple-double (double figures in 3 categories, like 10 pts, 10 ast and 10 reb), so prestigious today, was invented to measure the game of Magic Johnson. Although it was something natural for Oscar Robertson years before (he averaged one in the
1961-62
season and achieved 181 in his career), nobody noticed it until Johnson spread his magic on the floor. Magic got 138 in his career.

* Showtime *
His smile that could iluminate everything, his passing skills and his capability to do the unexpected with the ball were the fundaments of the "Showtime", a decade of great, running basketball that was the delight of most basketball fans and the envy of the rest.

* The Baby Hook *Abdul-Jabbar's signature shot was the sky-hook. He taught it to Magic who used his own version, the "baby hook" to write one of the greatest chapters in the playoffs history. Defended by Parish, Bird y McHale,
he made the game-winning basket in game 4 of the
1987 NBA Finals at the Boston Garden, to leave the Lakers at the verge of a new championship.

* Competitive Years *
Some of the greatness of Magic achievements reside in the fact that he played in an very competitive era. Magic had to battle with the great Boston Celtics of Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale and Cedric Maxwell among others, the Bad Boys of Detroit Pistons with Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars and Dennis Rodman and the Philadelphia 76ers of Dr. J and Moses Malone.